For the first time, IndyCar is racing for points at The Thermal Club.
The series has tested at the private track in Coachella Valley many times and held an exhibition race at the circuit last year — won by three-time champ Alex Palou (No. 10). With the stakes higher than ever before, we take you through exactly what to watch for in the series’ second race on FOX.
Were last year’s crashes from the format or a product of the track?
The Million Dollar Challenge’s 10-lap heats and split-in-half 20-lap final saw far more track time than advertised, with cars often having to trundle around the track after another driver erred. Those errors included multi-car incidents, most notably when six-time champion Scott Dixon (No. 12) missed his braking point into turn one and took former Haas F1 driver Romain Grosjean out of the race, but also included solo spins from various drivers.
Unlike last year, however, those laps will count towards the end of the race. There’s more time to drive through the field with 65 laps on the docket. The prize pot is also much lower, without half a million dollars as motivation.
The drivers should be less frantic to move forward. Will that mean they stay on the track? Not even two-time champion Josef Newgarden (No. 2) has a clue.
“I think we’ll find out together. I have no idea,” the two-time reigning Indy 500 winner said.
Strategy!
It felt weird not having to note strategic differences ahead of last year’s race. Last year, however, there were no pit stops. Barring a puncture, drivers stayed on the same set of tires for the whole race. The halfway break in the main race was a mandated refueling opportunity. That’s why Andretti’s Colton Herta (No. 26) chose to run 10 seconds off pace to preserve his tires for the second half. This year, however, the race runs like a normal one — pit stops and all.
With only data from last year’s race, which ran a different primary tire compound, and practice sessions this weekend, there are still many questions as to how long a set of tires, especially the red-walled, softer alternate tires, will last.
The hybrid engine system, which was introduced midway through last year, also adds about a hundred pounds to the back of the car — providing even more tire wear on a track already tough on tires.
With extra weight, a lot of high-speed corners to grain tires and temperatures expected to reach 89 degrees, teams might not be deciding between two and three stops, they might have to choose between three and four.
The front row remained hopeful, albeit in different ways.
“I think it’s better than we expected going into the weekend,” Christian Lundgaard (No. 7) said.
“There’s no data on continuous laps. There’s just one flyer here, one flyer there,” polesitter Pato O’Ward (No. 5) said. “Warm-up might be able to tell us a little bit more but it’s also going to be like 40 degrees cooler. I think we’re just in for a show in the race.”
“I don’t know why I feel like it’s gonna be like old Iowa, I know that’s a short oval, this is a road course, but I think tomorrow is going to be very reminiscent of what old Iowa was,” O’Ward added. “Just a lot of deg with a lot of different strategies. You’re probably not going to know where you are… I think we’re in for a treat.”
Penske on the back foot
Team Penske is consistently at the front of the field. Will Power (No. 12) and Newgarden are both recent champions and Scott McLaughlin (No. 3) would have been in the title hunt last year if not for a 100-point penalty for improper parts at the start of the year.
They don’t start at the front tomorrow, though.
McLaughlin starts second-to-last after spinning in qualifying. None of the three will start in the top 15, despite all of them having top 10 pace in practice Friday, but that speed did not show up when it mattered. Whether its bad set-up changes, driver mistakes or the In-N-Out their engineers got Friday night that has set them back remains to be seen.
Christian Lundgaard signing paying off — for everyone
IndyCar’s most recent offseason saw multiple driver changes: Lundgaard moved from Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing to McLaren, replacing Alexander Rossi (No. 20) who signed to Ed Carpenter Racing. Indy NXT champion Louis Foster replaced Lundgard in the No. 45.
All three start in the top 10 Sunday, with Lundgaard in second, Rossi in fifth and Foster in tenth.
They’re not the only new arrivals to teams showing out early. After Chip Ganassi Racing dropped from five cars to three, Marcus Armstrong found himself on Meyer Shank Racing, where he has shown better pace than at the powerhouse Ganassi has been, qualifying fourth in St. Pete and seventh today. David Malukas (No. 4) signed with McLaren ahead of the 2024 season, but never started a race with them after a wrist injury. He moved to MSR midseason before landing in his current ride with A.J. Foyt Racing in the offseason. Malukas made the Fast 12 in the No. 4 and will start 12th Sunday. Callum Ilott (No. 90) doesn’t start near the front, but was matching Dixon’s pace in practice despite this being his team’s second-ever race in the series and his teammate, rookie Robert Schwartzman (No. 83) starting last, with 1.7 seconds off 26th (albeit with technical issues preventing the 83 from practicing).
Schwartzman isn’t the only relative newcomer struggling early in the season — Nolan Siegel (No. 6) joined McLaren midway through last season after a smattering of other starts with Dale Coyne Racing and Juncos Hollinger Racing. After an offseason with the team, the class winner at Le Mans has yet to match his teammates’ pace. Sunday, he starts 16th with the other McLarens on the front row.
IndyCar’s race at The Thermal Club remains a somewhat confusing phenomenon, with only five thousand fans allowed on the premises. Tomorrow’s race is as unpredictable now as the race’s future on the schedule seems to be — today alone I’ve heard simultaneously that it won’t be here next year, that it will be here as it currently exists and that it will be here with the third of the facility’s three layouts.
One thing is very easy to predict, however: the 2025 The Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix is on FOX at 12 p.m.